Welcome to the first (of many I hope) Stop & Chat Saturday post here at Read. Sleep. Repeat.
do a happy dance & throw confetti!
Stop & Chat Saturday is the product of me being ignored and my Napoleon complex not being able to handle that. I know that sounds horrible and a bit self centered but I really have no one in my day to day/face to face life I can talk bookish with, and that seriously starts to wear you down after a while. So now I turn to you, my dears, with my bookish question/ramblings/rants/concerns. Be afraid….be VERY afraid.
This week’s Stop & Chat Saturday is inspired by Rachel of one of my fave blogs, Parajunkee. You guys may not know this but I am a HUGE blog stalker. Amongst the blogs that I stalk I’m happy to say that I’m a frequent visitor of Parajunkee. I love her weekly meme/features, she is an AMAZING designer, and her tips are always helpful. In fact it was during one of my visits that I stumbled upon a very thought provoking and sore subject for me: “How to grade your blog“. The post was basically about how we, as bloggers, know if our blog is doing well, and what we can do to improve on whatever areas/aspects in our blogging to make us better. I highlighted, bookmarked, and memorized as much of the post as I could and to put it frankly, I thought the post was brilliant!
I was coming up on my 3 month blogging milestone and I was at a bit of a stand still where numbers were concerned. I was starting to feel like I was failing at blogging. So you can see how a post about improving the “impact” of my blog was like a small miracle for me. But I started to twist what I was reading into a race to have more pageviews, more followers, more impact! I wanted to shoot to 10K pageviews a month in a blink of an eye. I wanted to have 1, 2, or maybe even 4K followers. I wanted publishers, book lovers, authors, and other bloggers to know my name. My goal became an obsession.
I went completely off the deep end. I started checking my GFC every morning before I got out of bed to see if I had gained any new followers. I joined more weekly meme’s in the hopes of generating more traffic. I even started to focus solely on ARC’s, thinking that would help.
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| Maybe just a little? |
I was never dishonest, or unethical, but I did become obsessed with the numbers game, and sadly, it took me 2 months to realize that my focus had shifted from blogging to numbers. I broke my cardinal rule of blogging:
Blogging is a hobby, an escape, a little piece of the internet where I can just be. Don’t screw it up!
Obviously, now I know that I was a bit nuts but during that time I didn’t even notice the change. I know I’m not the first nor the last blogger to go to that dark number padded room, and knowing my thick skull it may happen again (though I seriously hope not) but I wanted to take this Saturday to remind bloggers of the reason you chose to blog by asking why you blog. Too often I see my fellow bloggers stressed and unhappy with blogging, and what better way than for them to remind themselves why they started in the first place?! And to make it easy I will go first! =)
Why do YOU blog?
Why, Octavia! How thoughtful of you to ask me such an important question! I blog for so many reasons it’s hard to name just one, so I will pick 3.
- I blog to vent. I don’t have people in my face to face life who enjoy books, so I started blogging just so I could track down other book lovers and rant to them.
- I blog to make friends. I have some of the best bookish friends, and it’s all thanks to blogging! I’m not talking about your occasional “hey just dropping by the blog” kind of friend, I mean the ones I talk to daily via twitter/email/etc. I didn’t think I would make friends from blogging, but thankfully I was wrong.
- I blog because I really do love it. Once I got back to the basics and remembered that numbers won’t make or break me I was reminded of how much I really love blogging. Yes its a place to vent and met new people but it’s also a place for me to watch my growth as a blogger, my knowledge as a book lover and the passion I insist on sharing with EVERY ONE. I have a lot of growth ahead of me but I’m on a path that makes me happy.
And that my, brilliant and thoughtful Octavia, is why I blog. I’ve got good friends and great books, and thats really important to me.
So link your answers up in the comments! Because I really want to know:
Why do YOU blog?
